Chastisement in the lives of godly people (Quality: Very good)

[0:00] I'm going to speak mainly on the subject of chastisement. I'm going to direct your thoughts by way of text to the 11th and 12th verses in the 12th chapter of the epistle of Paul to the Hebrews.

[0:22] Hebrews chapter 12 verses 11 and 12. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous.

[0:36] Nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.

[0:48] Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down and the feeble knees. Most of you were present this morning I believe.

[1:01] One or two had responsibilities at home that necessitated their absence. Nevertheless the theme of the morning was in the preceding two verses.

[1:16] Verses 9, 10 and into 11. And this evening we go on from 11 to 12 and maybe trespass into 13 as the Lord shall lead.

[1:29] But what I want to do and what's on my mind to do is to speak on the chastening of the Lord in the experience of some of those mighty men of God whose record is in the scripture.

[1:51] Excellent. We might term them comparatively giants of the faith. And the three I'm going to speak on this evening as the Lord may help me.

[2:02] First is Moses. Then I shall move on to David. And I hope if the Lord enables me to finish the meditation with Solomon.

[2:15] Three men greatly blessed and used of God. But the wonder of God's mercy to us all is that he's not only shown the measure and influence of his grace in their hearts and their lives, both personal and in a general application of influence that has been profitable in their immediate day and generation, but through the record of scripture has been made profitable to the people of God even down to this present time.

[2:57] They were men sanctified of the Most High from before the foundation of the world. And God instrumentally has made them of great value to his people by the record of his Spirit in the Word and those things that are left for our instruction.

[3:21] Now I'm going to start this evening with Moses. You don't need me, I think most of you, to enlarge upon the wonder of God's working from the very beginnings of life in Moses' experience right through to the end of his journey here below.

[3:45] A great man of God. My friends, what a courageous man of God. And yet what a gracious and humble man of God, was a meek man of God, was Moses as the Lord's servant.

[4:03] But Moses, like all of us, was a man. Moses had a weakness. I can't go into the history of his coming forth through the house, through the throne, or by the throne of Pharaoh, into a wonderful knowledge of things in Egypt, as well as doubtless more general understanding of life, through the influence of Pharaoh and his senators.

[4:37] But I want to come straight away to the fact that he led the children of Israel out of Egypt and he led them along through the wilderness of Sinai, as you will recall.

[4:57] And then they're coming to the point when God is pleased to bring his promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Israel to fruition.

[5:11] And they're right, as it were, close to taking possession of the land of promise, which God had sealed upon the hearts of those great men of God, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and also doubtless the succeeding generation till we come to the time of Moses himself.

[5:37] A tremendous responsibility, wasn't it? To be a leader of a nation. In the circumstances.

[5:53] Think of how they came out of Egypt. Think of how they came through the Red Sea. Think of how they entered upon the journey through the wilderness.

[6:04] Think of how they came through the wilderness.

[6:34] As solicited the confidence under God for the children of Israel to follow his leadership. And they come into the wilderness and things become difficult.

[6:53] Certain blessings that were essential to the promotion of life seemed from time to be largely folding up.

[7:10] And one of the things, of course, that was so present in that area, that climate and those circumstances, was something to drink.

[7:24] When we come into the 20th chapter of Numbers, which is the prime chapter from which my thoughts are taken, we read of the rebellion of the children of Israel against Moses by reason of the fact that they were where they were and as they were.

[7:51] And such words are written, And there was no water for the congregation. And they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron. And the people chode with Moses and spake, saying, Would God that we had died when our brethren died before the Lord.

[8:11] And why have ye brought up the congregation of the Lord into this wilderness, that we and our cattle should die there? And wherefore have ye made us to come up out of Egypt, to bring us in unto this evil place?

[8:31] It is no place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates. Neither is there any water to drink. Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and they fell on their faces.

[8:52] And the glory of the Lord appeared unto them. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes, and it shall give forth his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock.

[9:22] So thou shalt give the congregation, and their beasts drink. And Moses took the rod from before the Lord, as he commanded him.

[9:36] And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock. And he said unto them, Hear now, ye rebels, must we fetch you water out of this rock?

[9:51] And Moses lifted up his hands, and with his rod he smote the rock twice. And the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also.

[10:06] And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not to sanctify in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.

[10:25] This is the water of Meribah, because the children of Israel strove with the Lord, and were sanctified in them. The Lord said, Speak to the rock.

[10:42] And Moses struck the rock. He was not careful, attending to the commandment of the Lord.

[10:52] And when he did that, which he was not told to do, he incurred God's displeasure. The anger of the Lord was known to Moses and to Aaron in a very solemn way.

[11:12] And the ultimate was that Moses was not suffered to see the land of promise.

[11:28] That is to see, well I ought to have said, to enter into the land of promise. He was taken to the top of Pisgah, and he was shown what the Lord had promised.

[11:41] He had a view of things. He was not allowed to enter in. And the Lord, in the last chapter of the book of Numbers, chapter 34, we have a wonderful record concerning the end of Moses.

[11:59] And Moses went up from the plains of Moab unto the mountain of Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, that is over against Jericho. And the Lord showed him all the land of Gilead unto Dan, and all Naphtali, and the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah, unto the utmost sea, and the south and the plain of the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees, unto Zohar.

[12:33] And the Lord said unto him, This is the land which I swear unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy seed.

[12:44] I have caused thee to see it with thy eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither. So Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab according to the word of the Lord.

[13:01] And he buried him in the valley, in the land of Moab, over against Beth Peor, but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day.

[13:16] Moses was an hundred and twenty years old when he died. Wonderful thing. His eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated.

[13:32] You see, my friends, he didn't do what the Lord said he should do. I think he was so wound up with the rebellion of the people, we might say, surely this is understandable.

[13:47] He'd been instrumental in all the deliverance of the children of Israel and their passage through a good part of the wilderness and he comes to a point where the Lord says to supply the need, strike the rock.

[14:08] Sorry, speak to the rock. And with the rod, he strikes the rock. The water came out abundantly, but there was a disobedience involved in the relationship that caused God not to finish with Moses as his servant.

[14:34] Moses went to the top of Pisgah. He saw the promised land. God revealed it to him. But he never was entered into it.

[14:45] He died, but he went to a better country. He went to a better country. He went to heaven as a forgiven sinner through the sacrifice and offering of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

[15:05] He wasn't allowed to see the promised land on earth. That didn't prevent him from going to the promised land in heaven because he was sheltering by faith beneath the Savior's precious blood.

[15:24] But doesn't that set in focus our responsibility to consider the way of the Lord, to consider the will of God, to seek, as it were, in a very close examination and examination of our own hearts and of our own words and own ways, what is the will of God?

[15:50] And my friends, as the Lord enables, as it were, his will to unfold before him, to submit, to submit to his superior authority.

[16:04] because he has a right, he has a right to our obedience. Well, that is as far as I want to go with Moses, but, oh, I love to feel that though he was prevented from going into Palestine, if you like, the promised land of God, the land of Israel, he went to heaven.

[16:33] he went to heaven. And that was by the grace of his God, the predominant reason of salvation for any person that goes to heaven.

[16:51] Well now, let us move on and I want to come to the point that we had in our reading, the 12th chapter in the second book of Samuel.

[17:03] David was a mighty man of God, wasn't he? He feared the Lord from his youth. He saw a miracle.

[17:16] He that delivered me from the poor of the lion and the poor of the bear, shall he not deliver me from the hand of this Philistine as Goliath stood proud on the other side of the valley, threatening what he would do to anyone that came from Israel and threatening in a personal way what he was about to do with this stripling who had not the confidence of his own brother that he should go forth as the champion of Israel.

[17:53] He had no confidence and Saul felt that he couldn't go as he was. He was put on his armour to trust in the Lord.

[18:04] It wasn't satisfactory for Saul's reasoning but nevertheless it was all God required that he should go forth as he was with a sling and a stone and meet this great boastful giant of the Philistine.

[18:23] What a wonderful history we have of these great characters that were men of like passions with ourselves that they were what they were by the grace of God the measure of their usefulness depended upon God given grace and strength.

[18:51] My friends with God all things are possible. God can raise up and use whomsoever he will for the deliverance of his people for an answer to their prayers and for the manifestation of himself as he stands the king of kings and lord of lords with all things in heaven and upon the face of the earth subject to his decrees.

[19:25] Now David yes how well established he was when at length Saul his great enemy's life was terminated and David rose to the throne of Judah and of Israel.

[19:52] David had a weakness we've got them we've got them we haven't got a stone to throw at any if we rightly consider our personal weaknesses and David sees Bathsheba from the roof of his house.

[20:28] Inclination carnal inclination takes over. What an old deacon used to say at Coventry in my childhood was if inclination and opportunity prevail no man is safe no person is safe but under God's keeping power.

[20:57] My friends it's it's a real acknowledgement of our need of divine protection constantly yes who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation there is a power present that's in the world that's sufficient to keep us whatever may be presented look at Joseph under a similar situation but the wife of Potiphar pleading with him to commit sin God kept him God kept him we don't as it were praise Joseph in that particular we praise God's keeping grace given to him to reject as it were the pleas of an adulterous woman well here

[21:57] David his weakness surfaces carried away carried away and he's in such a position of influence and power that he can order all sorts of things to comply with the greed that's in him the lust that's in him my friends what a terrible thing it was that Bathsheba's husband should be put at the front of the battle at David's command to try and assure his death surely the spirit of murder seems to be in those in that plan and its unfolding of which David became the subject as he was the servant of human lust at that particular time you know

[23:06] I'm not going in we read it together tonight the steps that were taken and how eventually Uriah was killed and the way was open as it were for David to take into that close relationship about Bathsheba as his wife the frown of God was on it the frown of God was on it God was displeased the child was brought forth but the child shouldn't live David's prayer that the child should live received a negative answer didn't it and David was there pleading in misery of spirit I believe with a goodly measure of guilt upon his own conscience feeling that child was dying because of his own sin and transgression multitudes of convictions can flow through an incident in one's experience as God charges home to us the evil of what we've done you know my friends in the path of sin there is such a thing as sowing and reaping if we're gardeners you know what I mean as an illustration you sow a little seed and it produces a copious harvest you might say well it was only a little thing that I did ah but what about the harvest when the reaping time comes oh consider your ways and turn again to the Lord if so be there is an inclination in your heart to do something that you know to be wrong something that is absolutely condemned of

[25:10] God in his word and you've got as it were that situation where the fight of faith seems to have given place to the weakness and frailty of a fallen nature David oh how bitterly he receives does he not the news that the child is died there's something I thought in our reading this evening very wonderful when Nathan comes to charge home the guilt as it were under God to David you remember his approach and he says now Nathan said unto David thou art the man thus saith the Lord God of Israel I anointed thee king over Israel I delivered thee out of the hand of

[26:11] Saul and I gave thee thy master's house and thy master's wives into thy bosom and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah and if that had been too little I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord to do this evil in his sight David falls under the conviction and David said unto Nathan I have sinned against the Lord oh what a what a wonderful thing not self justifying not twisting and turning to find an excuse for what he's done not seeking to lay the blame even on God himself for allowing such a thing and not preventing such a thing no no no he falls flat as it were before God in repentance and sorrow for sin and he says I've sinned against the

[27:14] Lord now that's constructive that's a that's a measure of the cure the restoration of spiritual health in our experiences I've sinned against the Lord and what does Nathan say under the influence of the spirit of God and Nathan said unto David the Lord also hath put away thy sin thou shalt not die how wonderful a message from the Lord that he committed sin and he deserved to die and he felt this that he deserved to die but Nathan could say thou shalt not die how could he say for Jesus sake for Jesus sake I like that and it's a solemn scripture and it needs very much meditation and prayer the apostle

[28:17] Paul says it's no more I that do it but sin that dwelleth in me God has saved his people and he sees his people in Christ and for that sake he could send Nathan with the message that that sin wouldn't be his eternal destruction God saved David and how wonderful as we go on is the experience but I I do feel this as David was a public man and that is very clear in the lesson we read together that his sin was a blot on his character that undermined his position as the king of

[29:24] Judah and the king of Israel my friends the the knowledge of our sinful weaknesses when publicly known have a great detrimental impression on the opinion of other people as regard to us we need to be very careful as professed Christians that we don't bring such a blot on our character as to make the people of the world rejoice in that we're not what we should be as Christians that we're not worthy of the name of the Lord oh to be jealous and may that jealousy for the and out of love toward the

[30:30] Lord Jesus Christ make us very careful how we walk before the world as well as before the professing church of which we profess to be members David he could kill the lion and he could kill the bear he could go and meet the great champion of the Philistines the devil lays a snare he goes into it and he falls he never fully recovers in his reputation as the king of the Lord's people Israel be careful be careful you might sin in youth and I'm speaking to our young people because sometimes I feel in retrospect the days of our youth are very slippery places we need the Lord to keep us we need the Lord to make our hearts tender in his fear we need to remember that we have a reputation as those that fear and follow the Lord and in jealousy for the honour of our

[31:54] God we should be careful not to run easily into the way of sin and the way of just condemnation among our fellow men as well as in our own hearts and conscience if I can introduce Moses just again and I must hasten to the amen but if I can just introduce Moses went to heaven for Jesus sake David went to heaven for Jesus sake not what they were not the works that they exercised Moses leading him through David being king over no salvation is of grace and the grace of God prevails despite all the faults and failings of his people because Christ shed his precious blood for the remission of all the sins of his blood-bought church in every every center and every generation of the world over now just to hasten quickly to Solomon what a character was

[33:19] Solomon Solomon had a weakness and I'm going straight to the point because the time's running out but King Solomon loved many strange women together with the daughter of Pharaoh women of the Moabites the Ammonites the Edomites Sidonians and the Hittites of the nations concerning which the Lord said unto the children of Israel you shall not go into them neither shall they come in unto you for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods Solomon clave unto these in love now you know somewhat of the majesty and prosperity of Solomon's kingdom wonderful the queen of Sheba comes to see the situation and she goes away almost speechless she can't describe what she has seen of the wonderful prosperity

[34:26] God has given to King Solomon Solomon has a weakness Solomon has a weakness and the weakness prevails to the undermining of the record of his kingdom and undermining too in the exercise of his kingship while he remained the king over the Lord's people but this is I'm going to hasten to the point God showed mercy to Solomon and suffered he says for David's sake that the kingdom should continue till the end of his life Jerusalem but after Solomon died Rehoboam his son would not be the king over the whole twelve tribes he should have but two tribes

[35:38] Jeroboam a stranger would come in and take ten tribes so that the kingdom that Solomon had reigned over was split and it was split to this degree that Solomon's son should have but two tribes and the other man should have ten tribes and God brought it to pass in judgment God brought it to pass and we have the further record in scripture that thus it was to be and thus it was brought about to be because God rules among the nations of the earth and God can break a nation in twain as he please or God can maintain a unity which was desirable as we would look at it for Solomon to look forward for the future with real pleasure that as he had enjoyed so much prosperity so that prosperity would be passed on to his son but now

[36:48] Solomon's sin was going to affect the history of Israel for a great while after Solomon had closed his eyes on this world and gone to heaven sometimes God visits the iniquities of the fathers upon the children and my friends if we really love our children we don't want our children to suffer for our sins do we we would be in the fear of God constantly asking that the Lord would preserve us and keep us from these avenues which do such harm even to good people even to such giants as Moses and David and Solomon the fear of the

[37:54] Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the fear of the Lord is a great great blessing we need to pray every day that the Lord will keep us our weakness is many human resolve in itself is inadequate if these great men could tumble and fall who are we to trust in our own sufficiencies we've got to come to this Lord help me Lord preserve me Lord maintain me for the honour of thine own name which I bear and the honour of my own name in so far as I wish to be a constructive example both within the church and within the nation the neighbours and work people who continually observe me hold up my goings in thy path that my footsteps slip now

[39:12] God chastened Moses God chastened David God chastened Solomon whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth may God keep us may God bless us may God help us to understand our weakness and our exposure to temptation may God help us to live uprightly in his sphere seeking to know and do his will and to be an example to those that round about us as among them that are jealous in love for the glory of the Lord Amen